'Bitter pain of losing' will drive Moate CS on

Despite an agonising defeat in last week’s All-Ireland Junior ‘A’ final, Moate Community School manager Fidelma Quinn is confident that they will remain strong contenders for more ladies football success in the future.

Bidding to retain their All-Ireland crown at this age group (U16), Moate CS were narrowly edged out by Sacred Heart, Westport on a 3-9 to 2-10 scoreline in Elphin.

Moate CS won both the Leinster Senior ‘A’ and Junior ‘A’ titles in this school year (2025/2026) and Fidelma firmly believes the school is capable of challenging for more glory when the next campaign rolls around.

“Sometimes you have to lose one before you win one and sometimes you have to feel that bitter pain of losing to really drive you on and to get you over the line, so that's where we're at,” said Fidelma, who was joined at the helm by Caulry's Rachel Maguire.

And highlighting the "fantastic" support football teams from the school receive from local clubs and the parents of players, Fidelma said "everybody gets behind us".

"The part we do is very easy. I suppose with sport, you just have to take the good with the bad and that's what makes it exciting, and that's what makes us go back year after year," said Fidelma.

Reflecting on last week’s match itself, Fidelma admitted missed goal chances proved key to their downfall in the end.

“I think we missed three to four goal chances in the first ten minutes. And I suppose if we got one of them, it would have given us a small cushion, or even if we had just taken a couple of points. That was our message to the girls, which they started to do before half-time. But I suppose they are goal getters, players like Chloe Malone and Anna Ryan, you'd back them for a goal any time. In fairness, Westport were very good in defence and their goalkeeper was outstanding," she said.

Although Anna Ryan found the net for her second goal shortly after half-time, Westport responded by raising a green flag from a penalty.

“They (Westport) absolutely never lay down. You could see their hunger and their will to win was massive. Every time we went up and got a score, they came back up and punished us, and that's always a sign of a very good team," said Fidelma.

“We probably looked a little tired at stages. I'm not making excuses, but probably being in the senior semi-final a week ago with seven players playing that day, it probably does take its toll mentally and physically.

“Look, it's not an excuse or anything, but normally we probably would look a little bit fresher, and when you see just a two-point loss, you know, you're reflecting all the small margins," she continued.

It certainly was a contest decided by very small margins. Ryan saw her attempt for a winning goal in the closing moments saved by Westport keeper Lauren Cusack, with Daisy Bucys McLaughlin's follow-up attempt going wide via the woodwork.

Considering Anna's goalscoring prowess, Fidelma thought she was going to come up trumps once again.

“You'd put your house on Anna there. When you look at what happened down in Fethard two weeks ago (on that occasion Ryan’s clinched victory in the All-Ireland semi-final with a last-gasp goal), some days you just need the rub of the green and some days your luck runs out and I suppose that's the beauty of sport or the pain that goes with sport."

On the previous Thursday, the Moate CS senior team was denied in heartbreaking fashion in their All-Ireland semi-final against St Joseph's SS, Spanish Point. Fidelma shared in the acute disappointment of the senior team and their coaches, Amy Hughes and Carol Price.

"The four of us, Rachel, myself, Amy and Carol, we've worked pretty much as a unit since we won the Leinster finals. We've co-trained the teams because we have such an overlap of players. We know each other's players inside out," said Fidelma.

"We were gutted for them last week and just wanted to avenge the loss for them and for the whole school. But look, that’s sport. All-Ireland finals are just so hard won and it's very, very hard to do back-to-back in anything - back-to-back All-Irelands, you know, very few schools have ever done it.

“So maybe, Westport had that hunger. I don't think they had ever won an All-Ireland schools title. They've been in a final, but I think they lost it. They had never done it. So, you know, maybe that was a factor too," added the Galway native.